Marketing Mix - Research Paper Example

Several components are collected and divided into four different variables which are known as four Ps – Product, Place, Price and Promotion. In general the term ‘marketing mix’ is used to signify these four Ps. These four Ps are the main elements of marketing mix. Each of them is briefly explained below. Product Product means the tangible goods or the intangible services or the combinations of two that are offered by the companies to their customers. For instance, an Apple iPad is a tangible product whereas a software or insurance policy is an intangible product.

According to Pride and Ferrell, a product includes functional, psychological as well as social benefits or utilities. Furthermore it may also include various supporting services like guarantees, installation and repair (Pride & Ferrell, 2010, pp - 282). Price Customers have to pay a certain amount of money in order to purchase a product and this is called price. Companies earn their revenues from the prices of their products. Price of a particular product can be decided by adopting different policies or strategies.

Some of these strategies are ‘target pricing’, ‘ongoing pricing’, ‘value based pricing’ etc. . Place is basically referred to these and all the locations where the products are made available by the company. Promotion Promotion means all the activities that are involved in communicating the advantages and benefits of a particular product to the customers. The principle objective of promotional activities is to persuade the customer for making him/her purchase the product. There are different kinds of promotional activities that are practiced.

Advertising, public relation, personal selling, sales promotion are the most widely practiced promotional tools (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2008, pp. 47). Marketing Mix and Ford Ford motor is one of the biggest automobile manufacturing companies in the world. The company has been producing quality cars for the past century. Different categories of cars starting from SUVs to sedan are produced by Ford. Various functional services like warranties, repair of damages come automatically when any of Ford cars is purchased.

The company decides the price on the basis of its target revenue as well as consumers’ perception regarding the product. In case of its ‘Escape’ model, Ford calculates the probable retail prices that can be charged by its dealers. However, it is found that the dealers hardly charge the full price that is on the sticker. Instead of doing that, they offer trade-in-allowances, discounts as well as credit terms while negotiating the price with their customers. Such activities help the company to gain competitive advantage (Kotler, 2008, pp. 48-49). As far as distribution channels are concerned, there is a huge network of independent dealers who sell different cars of the company.

Dealers are selected carefully by Ford, but once they are selected they get all